TV News: Outlander, Westworld, Freak, Knick

OutlanderA combination of multiple weekend plays and an aggressive online and on-demand sampling period from last week had led to the first episode of “Outlander” bringing in a estimated 3.7 million viewers who have taken a peek under the kilt so far.

That is a multiplatform best for Starz and the show’s premiere weekend audience roughly matches that of the network’s “Black Sails” in January. Also, despite the female targeting of the marketing, 45% of the show’s audience were males 18-49. Complete streams, Live+3 and Live+7 ratings are expected to be made available in coming weeks. [Source: THR]

WestworldEd Harris has joined the cast of HBO’s drama pilot “Westworld”. Harris will play The Man in Black, the distillation of pure villainy into one man. He joins a cast that includes Anthony Hopkins, Evan Rachel Wood, James Marsden and Jeffrey Wright.

Inspired by Michael Crichton’s 1973 sci-fi movie set at an amusement park, Westworld is described as a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin. [Source: The Live Feed]

American Horror Story: Freak ShowPatti LaBelle has booked a four-episode stint on the anthology series “American Horror Story: Freak Show”. LeBelle will play a local townie who begins to unravel the deadly secrets of Twisty the clown killer and the mother of Gabourey Sidibe’s character.

The story will focus on the last American freak show and be set in Jupiter, Florida in the 1950s. LeBelle joins the likes of Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, Angela Bassett, Frances Conroy, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Michael Chiklis, Wes Bentley, John Carroll Lynch and Finn Wittrock. [Source: The Live Feed]

The KnickCinemax has released the entire first episode of Steven Soderbergh’s “The Knick” for free online. Clive Owen stars in the series which is set New York’s Knickerbocker Hospital in the year 1900. As usual with these releases, the clip is geolocked and will only play for people accessing the internet from North America.